"Neither is mine." Flit said with a shrug, looking down at her leather pants and jacket. She reached up and unzipped her jacket then peeled it off her shoulders, revealing a plain black tank top underneath. "But I think we can manage."

Flit then undid her belt and unzipped her pants before sliding them down her legs. Luckily she had chosen to wear her plain black briefs today under her pants, so it wouldn't look too bad. From a distance her clothes would easily pass for swimwear.

"What are you waiting for?" Flit asked, throwing him a wicked grin before turning and jogging towards the water.

Scraps was shocked by her flippant and spontaneous nature, yet at the same time her behavior sparked something from within him. She was only wearing her underwear now and he couldn't help but admire her well formed body. The Government put very little emphasis in the sexual education of their Derivates, only the very minimum was required. He wasn't exactly an expert but twice now seeing her half naked had stirred his feelings more than he would have liked to admit

Scraps stripped off down to only his underwear and jogged after her, she dived into the river and burst out seconds later, upon seeing him she motioned him to join. There was no way to tell the depth from her demonstration but if she could do it so could he. He dived into the water, the cool fresh bite of the river surrounded his body, the water it turned out was quite deep. He surfaced beside her shortly after diving in.

"What is the purpose of this exercise, are you testing my swimming abilities?" He asked her.

Flit watched as Scraps followed her into the water, his tall form naked but for his underwear. As much as she hated to admit it, he was extremely handsome. His entire body was subtly toned from what must have been years of training, and his muscles played nicely under his skin as he ran. Remembering that it was rude to stare, she motioned for him to follow her in.

Flit could see the confusion in Scraps's eyes as he broke through the surface of the water and looked at her. When he spoke she was glad- she couldn't help but laugh at his question. It was a very welcome distraction from watching the way that the rivulets of cold water ran down his nicely sculpted chest.Testing his swimming abilities? Flit shook her head exasperatedly.

"No Scraps- no test, just fun!" She said, looking up at him eagerly. When his confused crimson eyes continued to watch her curiously as she treaded water. Rolling her eyes, she pulled her hand back slightly to cup some water and then splashed it up at his face.

His confusion only grew, so she splashed him again.

"Come on Scraps! Lighten up!" She laughed, splashing him for a third time before backpedaling away from him a little.

Well it was certainly clear now that Scraps had no idea about what she was doing. Flit had to remember that he was a Registered Derivate. She often forgot that they never had a chance to communicate with their own people save for official business, nor were they really given a chance to unwind. It wasn't fair for Flit to expect him to play along when he had never really played before.
"Ok, no fun then... How about we try something a little more like a training exercise?" There was a glimmer of recognitinon in his eyes and she smiled. "The boundaries of the training area are the edges of the water. Your task is to catch me and hold me for three seconds."
Flit cocked her head to the side, wondering how he would take this new idea.

"Ahh, you caught me out." Flit said with fake disappointment. "How about if I don't use my ability? Even the playing field. Count to three and we can start." She looked at him as her body really begun to feel the chill of the water. If she didn't start moving around soon she'd be shivering for sure.

He wasn't sure if she was telling the truth but, since it was her game, she would only be cheating herself if she teleported. He swam back slightly to give her room to move and prepared himself for the chase

As soon as Scraps had counted to three Flit jumped up and dove under the water. Opening her eyes in the cold blue water she swam between the silty river floor and Scrap's legs. She continued to swim until she reached a part of the water where she could stand.
Flit rose from the water, the cool rivulets trickling slowly down her body and she looked for Scraps. As soon as she spotted him she laughed.
"Come on you! Keep up!" she said, diving back under the water and swimming along the shore. As she swam she could hear the subtle splashes of his practiced stroke coming closer and closer behind her. She got to her feet again, the water coming up to her just under her breasts, and grinned at him. This time when she dove away from him towards deeper water she felt his fingers grasp her ankle, but gave a sharp kick and her foot managed (barely) to slither from his strong grasp.

She was quick, that was for sure. Scraps gave chase immediately after she dove under water. He just managed to grab her ankle but she kicked back loosening his grip. He was going to need to use more than one hand to catch her, Scraps knew he was a strong swimmer and could hold his breath for a long time. He dove deeper, well below her using the lack of drag below water. Scraps caught up and with a burst of speed rushed toward her from below.

He managed to grasp onto her waist with two hands before she realized he was upon her. He surfaced for air and held on tight. She twisted and squirmed in his grasp, before he could readjust his grip to compensate she broke out. She was a slippery little minx, this excersise or fun activity as she called it as was becoming more interesting by the minute.

Shit, that was close. Flit thought as she quickly paddled away from Scraps. He was pretty fast considering his size. Flit would have to up the ante if she wanted to win this training exercise.

Flit and Scraps continued their game for another 15 minutes with plenty of near-catches. When she did this with Hawkeye he hardly ever managed to catch her; he was a pretty slow swimmer. Scraps presented her with a real challenge- so after nearly half an hour of swimming away she was getting extremely worn down. So it was that the seemingly tireless Scraps managed to get his arms wrapped around her body just under her arms making it nearly impossible for her to get away.

"Hey Scraps!" She said, when he looked down at her she used both of her arms to send a torrent of water splashing up at his face.

It was just the shock she needed to get away. His natural reaction was to let go of her and cover his face. She took advantage of his slip up to dive away, but before she could get more than two metres she felt his body glide over the top of hers and his arms snake around her waist. He dragged her to the surface and she gasped for breath as soon as they were clear of the water. He flipped her around on his arms and grinned down at her triumphantly. She tried to struggle away from him but his grip was so strong and solid that it almost hurt. As she tried in vain to get away she realised that his skin was searing hot against her, his arms wrapped around her, pressing her body flush against his own. She could smell his unique masculine scent mingled with that of the fresh water and her eyes widened. Flit's already rapid breath caught in her throat as she looked up at his smug but handsome face.

After what seemed like an eternity he'd finally managed to catch his prey. Lucky too, he was getting tired, a few minutes more and he wouldn't have the energy to stand let alone swim. He held her against him as snug as he could, she had stopped struggling which in turn allowed him to relax slightly. She looked up at him, her hazel eyes putting him into a trance, without the struggle he was acutely aware of the way her breasts moved up and down against his naked chest. After a long awkward silence, he was the first to speak.

As Flit looked up into Scraps's crimson eyes her stomach began to churn nervously and her heart continued to race. When he spoke it was like something snapped and she realised just what she had gotten herself into.

"Oh shi-" She begun, by the time she had finished her exclamation she had jumped to a spot a few meters away from him, scrambling to get her footing in the shifting sand below the water.

Flit saw the look of shock on Scraps's face and looked around wildly for escape. Instead of ackwnowledging that he did, indeed, win by catching her, she turned and begun to wade out of the water as quickly as she could. When she was out of the water she ran over to her clothes and begun to tug them on quickly, ignoring how they stuck to her dripping skin uncomfortably.

"Come on, we have to go." She called out over her shoulder, and begun a slow and awkward hobble towards the tunnel that would take them back to the residence.

He awaited her response but all she could do was curse and teleport away. He spied her several meters away hastily pulling her clothes on. Her sudden change of mood put him off balance. Did he insult her in some way by winning the exercise? Acumen did warn him that she didn't like to lose but Scraps wasn't the kind of person to let someone win because they didn't like loosing.

Without further thought he swam to the shore, found his clothes and began dressing, she started moving away before all of her clothes were even on, he followed as best as he could whilst getting dressed.

It wasn't long before Scraps managed to catch up to Flit. It was a combination of his naturally longer strides and her injured thigh that made it hard for her to outpace him. Luckily, when he caught up he didn't call her out on her sudden flight. Every nerve on her body was on edge with the memory of looking up into his startling crimson eyes and the way his hot wet skin felt as it pressed against her. That's enough! Flit thought to herself angrily. She wasn't even going to entertain such notions about him. For all she knew he would be returning to the surface in two days with his mind wiped. It was just an impulse, Flit reassured herself. If any male as good looking as Scraps held her she would probably have the same physiological reaction.
It wasn't until they reached the junction that led to the Residence that Scraps talked to her again.

"So, uh, did I win then? You did say teleporting was against the rules." He asked again. She seemed so determined to leave the river so quickly that she hadn't even fully dressed herself properly, she was still struggling to get her wet arms through the leather jacket.

When he finally caught Flit and had his whole body pressed against her, his first thought was that of triumph, but a second later he felt something else, an odd sensation in his stomach. She abruptly teleported from his grasp before he could analyse it further.

He couldn't be sure but he could sense the difference in the way Flit interacted with him compared to the others. After a couple of days listening to the way they spoke to each other, he was understanding a pattern in the relationships between the others in the underground. Most of them were friends with each other but he and Flit seemed different, especially the way she spoke and looked at him.

"Huh?" Flit asked, Scraps's voice breaking her train of thought. "Win? Er- yeah. You won... I didn't break the rules because you held me for a lot longer than three seconds before I teleported. The exercise was over anyway."

Flit finally managed to pull her jacket on and zip it up as they approached his quarters. She punched in the code that would unlock the door, and it slid open.

"Swipe?" Flit asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.

"Yes?" Swipe asked, looking equally as shocked to see them, both still thoroughly wet from their swim. "Where did you go?" She asked contemptuously.

"We went to the River." Scraps said, Swipe's eyes snapped to Flit, glaring at her.

"I left a message." Flit said shortly, pointing to communication's screen on the wall.

"You were only meant to be covering for Acumen, not gallivanting around and wasting time." Swipe said, giving flit a poisonous look.

"I was showing Scraps around, if he is going to stay with us then he will need to get to know the place."

"And you thought that taking him for a swim would be the best way to do that?" Swipe snapped.

"What's your problem?" Flit asked impatiently, not wanting to deal with Swipe's special brand of crap at that moment.

"My problem is that while you were at the river splashing around and half naked, I was stuck up here waiting for you to get back so KC-847 and I could start training, like Post-Hoc requested. No we're really late." Swipe said, full of her own self importance.

"And how is arguing about this making you get there any quicker?" Flit asked. She rolled her eyes and turned on her heels. "Good luck with this one... Mind she doesn't bite your head off too." She said to Scraps as she walked past him and out of the room.

Scraps quickly stepped aside to allow Flit through, the exchange between the women made him feel uncomfortable, he wasn't sure why exactly though. On the surface he had witnessed many of his human superiors reprimand each other or other Derivates, this conversation though seemed to hold a lot more tension and he was the main reason for that tension.

"Sorry you had to see that KC-847." The way she spoke his former designation was more of a melodic sing song than an inconvenience. "It's seems you have the distinct pleasure of training with me." She beamed excitedly.

"It's Scraps now actually, Flit gave me a new name." He replied.

"I know stud, I was there remember, I'm not sure if it suits your handsomely rugged frame." She commented and her eyes lingered over his body. A part of him knew he should be flattered by such a gesture but he couldn't help but still feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Indeed, what kind of training are we engaging in?" He asked trying to redirect the conversation back to a more acceptable subject.

"Why telekinesis, silly, gosh you surface types are so dull sometimes, luckily I know just what to do with you." She winked after her response. Scraps could not decipher the underlining meaning behind her words so instead decided to focus again on the right topic.

"With respect, I already know how to use my ability. The Government takes training very seriously, I have been training my abilities from the moment I could walk." He relied dryly.

"You are so cute when you all defensive like that." She gave him a sly smile and strode over to him slowly, swaying her hips. Again Scraps felt uncomfortable with her approach. "You've been training with that focus chip in your head, you have no idea what you are capable of now and its my job to make sure you don't damage that pretty face of yours." she explained, before he could respond she brushed past him on purpose and looked behind him with an expectant look. He got the hint this time and followed behind.

She guided him to the lower levels, unlike the others she made sure he was close by, continuously looking over her shoulder at him. It wasn't like she mistrusted him, more like she wanted to keep an eye on him for other reasons. She opened a solid looking door and stepped in, Scraps followed and assessed the new room he had been taken to. It was approximately five times the size of his own quarters, inside he spotted rows of storage cabinets and in the center of the room lay a large rubber mat. It closely resembled training room from the surface. Acumen and another female Derivate he hadn't meet stood to the side of the mat apparently awaiting them.

"Don't bother explain why you're late, I already know." Acumen commented pointing to his head. "This is Harmony." he motioned toward the other woman. "She works in the control team." he explained further.

A woman in her late forties walked toward him she had long blond hair hanging loose around her shoulders, she had bright blue eyes and a face that exuded friendless. She offered her had and Scraps shook it.

"Hello Scraps, I've heard a lot about you, Acumen and I are only here as observers to your training as you already know Acumen is a mind-reader, I am however a telecoercionist. We are simply here to keep things safe, for us and more importantly, for you. Please Swipe continue." Scraps didn't know whether it was because of her friendly face and voice or if she had used her ability on him, but he couldn't help but believe every word she spoke. Swipe complied and opened one of the nearby cabinets with her abilities. A set of ceramic cups floated toward them and were set down on the mat.

"Acumen is going unlock and remove your inhibitor so we can start training, he is only here to supervise in case something goes wrong which I'm sure wont." Harmony explained, Acumen walked over to him and operated the lock on the inhibitor, the device unlocked and it was removed from his head. Instantaneously he felt the psychic energy flow freely again, like a blindfold lifted he could see once again.

"I know your excited stud, but remember, you don't have preset limits on your abilities anymore."she explained. "Now lets test your control, I want you to pick up on one the cups and bring it to your hand." she asked politely. The task seemed to easy and menial for someone of his ability but nonetheless he proceeded with the task.

Unlike before when he power surfaced like a control flow through a pipe, instead an ocean of power flooded his mind and burst forward toward his target. The cup he focused on and the surrounding 3 immediately exploded and the floor vibrated below them. Scraps quickly recalled his power and stood in awe of the result. He looked over at Swipe who returned him a slight smile.

"Well it looks like that chip was holding a lot of power back if you didn't have the years of training behind you it may have been worse." she explained. It seemed he had taken the technology behind his control chip for granted. She was correct of course, if he had not pulled back his power like he'd been trained to do the cups would have been the least of the destruction.

"Don't worry Scraps, this room has been specially designed for training Derivates. It has been built with psionic nullifying materials, no matter what you do, it will not get past these wall." Acumen explained. It definitely explained the solid door at the entrance.

"Yeah don't worry about it, with me training you nothing will go wrong. How about we try that again." she winked at him again and floated another set of cups. He tried again with similar results, this time however one handle remained. They tried again for the next few hours, Swipe gave him several pointers and demonstrated by having him hold her hands while she worked, he progressed some but he was being exhausted with the strain.

"I think that's enough for today, how about you get a rest Scraps, today went well, you'll be training with Swipe for at least the next week, until you have your own abilities under control we can't allow you to train with the others. It was a pleasure to meet you." she stated kindly. She left the room first, then Acumen and Swipe escorted him to the Mess Hall for dinner. They sat at the same table and they were joined by several others later in the night including Flit. The conversation went as they did the previous night except Flit was very quiet and avoided any conversation that involved him. Despite her odd behavior Scraps felt inexplicitly drawn to her still, he spent most of the dinner trying to catch her eye, after several attempts he managed a brief mutual stare and a small smile in response.

After she was clear of the holding cells Flit fell back against one of the walls, closed her eyes, and let out a heavy sigh. If the confusion of the river wasn't enough already, Swipe had just topped it off. She could always trust that bitch to make her life harder. What was her problem? Flit wasn't told that Scraps had anything to do that afternoon. She was under the impression that she would be with him until the evening. Regardless, she was sure that the fact that she and Scraps had returned, still completely soaked, would spread like wildfire through the residence. However, she didn't think that Acumen would have much of a problem with it. Desperately wanting to get clear of the thoughts in her mind, Flit decided to return to the training rooms and find someone to spar with- that would help her relax a bit.

~*~

Flit had spent the rest of the afternoon training with Hawkeye, who had the decency not to ask why she was so wet. On their way to the Mess Hall for dinner they were intercepted by her mother.

“Flit, can you come with me for a minute please? We need to chat.” Her mother said, the smile on her face strained. Flit shrugged and followed her into one of the lesser used tunnels. As usual, Hawkeye tagged along. It said a great deal about how close they were as friends that her mother thought nothing of him coming too.

“What is it Mum? Hawk and I have been training all afternoon and we’re starving.” Flit said, trying not to sound too impatient.

“What is this I hear about you taking Scraps to the River?” Her mother asked. Even though she was annoyed that her mother knew this, she wasn’t surprised. Swipe probably told everyone that would listen how irresponsible and lazy she was for taking Scraps down for a leisurely swim.

“There isn’t much more to it than that, I’m afraid.” Flit said with a shrug.

“The River?” Hawkeye asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion “At least that would explain why you looked like a drowned rat when you came in to train.”

“What possessed you to take him there?” Her mother asked impatiently.

“Er… Well, he is new, and we are supposed to be showing him around.” Flit said slowly, not sure what all the fuss was about.

“He could have drowned you!” Her mother said, voice high pitched and barely below a yell.

“He had an inhibitor on!” Flit argued.

“Yes, but he is huge! He could of held you under water and drowned you!” Her mother said.

“I would have teleported!” Flit said as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

“You know that I don’t like it when you teleport in water!” Her mother said exasperatedly.

“Yes, I do. I also know you don’t like tomatoes, that you hate hot weather, that you can’t stand paper work and that you never wear green because you think it is an ugly colour.” Flit said “There are a hell of a lot of things you don’t like!” Flit said, glaring at her mother. Her mother watched her, silent, for a moment before she managed to think of something to say to that.

“You showed him one of our fresh water sources… and because it is an underground river it means that he has some valuable information about our location.” Her mother said, deciding that her old line of attack wasn’t going to work.

“What? Bloody hell mother! If he goes back to the Hub then he will have his mind wiped- no harm done!” Flit said. “Plus, we are trying to get him to join us- why should he trust us if we don’t trust him?”

“You have a point young lady, but even so- it is not your place to make him trust us. You need to leave that to the likes of Acumen and Post-hoc.” Her mother scolded. “First you disobey protocol to rescue him and now you are giving him valuable informations and putting yourself in potentially risky situations. I don’t think you should be on active duty at the moment.”

“What?” Flit yelped, surprised by the statement. “You don’t have the authority to take me off duty.” She said complacently.

Flit looked to her left where Hawkeye was standing. The only way for her to show her injured leg was to peel her pants down. Something she was not willing to do in front of her friend.

“What has this got to do with anything anyway?” Flit asked. Before she could move away, her mother placed a hand on her bare cheek and the damage was done.

“Your thigh is too injured for you to be on active duties.” Her mother said, the glee clear in her tone. “I will reassign you to Supply duties for the rest of the week. Maybe you will have some time to think about your rash behaviour.”

Flit glared at her mother, completely and utterly outraged. She knew for a fact that her mother had the ability to force people to take rests if their health depended on it. It was within the power of her role to be able to take Flit of active duty for such a reason. The fact that she had the nerve to do it as a punishment is what astounded her.

“Tinker, I really do think that Flit was doing the right thing. Why should Scraps put his faith in us if we can’t even trust him a little.” Hawkeye said. Tinker’s keen eyes now turned on him and he took a slight step backward.

“You think so Hawkeye? As her best friend I’d have thought you’d be concerned about her risky decisions.” Her mother said in a tone that would have made Hawkeye feel ten centimetres tall.

Before either Flit or Hawkeye could say another word Tinker turned on her heel and walked down the passage that led back to the hospital rooms. Hawkeye and Flit looked at each other, dumbstruck.

“I can come to supply with you if you want. I am your partner anyway- I can’t do the patrols on my own.” Hawkeye offered.

“Nah, it isn’t fair if I drag you down with me.” Flit said, still seething. “Come on, let’s go to dinner.”

On her way to the Mess Hall Flit tried to think of a way to get out of her Mother’s punishment. She realised, however, that her thigh did present a safety risk if she were to go on patrols. No sane healer would revoke her mother’s decision.

When Flit and Hawkeye sat down at the table everyone greeted them in the usual friendly manner. Except for Swipe, she greeted Flit in her usual contemptuous manner. When Acumen looked up at her understanding dawned in his eyes. Even though Acumen could be a jerk sometimes, he at least had the decency not to tell everyone of her punishment- some things he knew were not meant to be shared.

Throughout the meal, Flit could feel Scraps’s keen red eyes trying to catch her attention. The awkwardness at the river, the encounter with Swipe, and her horrid discussion with her mother made her feel a range of emotions, none of which she was willing to deal with at that moment.

Just as she had finished her food, Flit looked up again to find Scraps watching her intently. Despite the storm of anger and confusion she felt, she couldn’t help but smile at him. Her time with him at the River had been the highlight of her day. She didn’t want him to think that she was angry at him. Seeing him smile back at her took the edge off her dark mood and made her realise that some things were worth getting into trouble for.

The next week passed by so quick Scraps barely had a chance to keep up with the torrent of training and learning he needed to complete. His training with Swipe progressed well, no more exploding cups. He still had clumsy moments but he was most definitely getting more of a handle on his unrestrained abilities. They had progressed onto much larger objects and by the end of the week he was able to move several of the large storage cabinets simultaneously, it was a feat he could not previously achieve.

He wasn't just training his own abilities during the week however, it was a requirement for all Derivates to undergo survival training as well. Unlike the surface, this brand of survival training involved more enclosed spaces and underground navigation. He still had not memorised the myrad of tunnels and passageways but the he could at least identify most of the markers.

Although Swipe had been extremely helpful in all aspects of his training he couldn't help but feel slightly suffocated by her presence, she insisted on being close to him physically almost all the time. He was getting used to the continued presence of the other Derivates around him as opposed to the surface but her specific attention toward him was becoming tedious. In the week he had observed the interactions between males and females more closely. He was beginning to understand it more fully the longer he spent underground and he suspected that Swipe was exhibiting some of those behaviors.

He only managed to see Flit two times during the week and only during dinner. On both occasions she attempted to initiate conversation with him but Swipe's over charismatic personality always shone through. Scraps felt an overwhelming need to speak to Flit again, he didn't even know what he would say just that he wanted to talk. Toward the last day of his training with Swipe Acumen pulled him aside to discuss something he considered private.

"So buddy how are you going?" he asked brightly.

Don't you already know, reading my mind and all Scraps had become accustom, like the others to talking to a mind-reader.

"Well yeah, I can read thoughts pretty well, but emotions are harder to decipher." He explained. It was an interesting comment, he knew that mind-readers on the surface weren't taught to read emotions.

Good, actually, the training is hard but nothing I'm not used to. I think I am getting used to everyone here and knowing where everything is. Scraps responded contently.

"That's good to hear, to be honest when you first arrived, control had many interesting discussions about you. Did you know that you are the freshest Registered Derivate ever to come to us?" Acumen asked.

I did not know that. Is that a positive or negative thing? Scraps returned.

"Both I guess, on the upside; there was a high likelihood of you adapting to our way of life quickly. On the downside it means that you may be utilised in our operations a lot more than the others that have changed. Unlike you a lot of them resent their old life, so much so, that they wouldn't set two meters on the surface again. Unfortunately the best intel and espionage is done on the surface. It's how we know what The Government is up to and how close they are to finding us." Acumen explained gravely.

I see, so you mean they will request that I do mission for them on the surface? Scraps inquired.

"Maybe, I wouldn't worry about it too much....... One more thing, what do you think about Swipe? I don't need to be a mind-reader to know shes pretty interested in you." Acumen asked.

Swipe? Interested in me how? Scraps asked, slightly confused by the notion yet not entirely surprise based on her recent behavior.

"Yeah, I suppose your not used to that kind of attention. Swipe is the kind of girl that latches onto anything she like the look of. In your case, tall and exotic. She's been putting out all the signs and you haven't caught on, its kind of frustrating her. At the same time however she does like a challenge once in a while, so don't expect her to back down too soon." Acumen explained.

It does make sense now, I did suspect something but now that you have cleared it up for me I understand. Even though I respect her intentions I just can't seem to return her affection, there's just something else I can't explain that is holding me back. I am very new to interactions with the opposite sex and have no idea what it is. Scraps explained as best as he could.

"I think I do, but this is something you're gonna need to work out on your own." Acumen told him. For the next ten minutes of the conversation Acumen went through the finer points of what he knew about women. He did admit that even with his ability there were things that he just couldn't explain. By the end of it Acumen told him that he need to let Swipe know he wasn't interested, but perhaps not during a training session or with others around. It was something he needed to tell her when they were alone.

The next week went painfully slowly. Her work on the surface was just as dull as always, and as usual she found the excess of time she spend in the Hub was terribly draining. Every afternoon, after a long, tiresome day at work, Flit would head back down to the Underground for a shorter yet equally tiresome time in Supply, counting stock with her father. The only reprieve was when Hawkeye would come down before dinner and give her a hand and updates on what she was missing out on in the Security Team.

After counting stock together, Flit and Hawkeye would head towards the nearly-empty dining room. They had only made it on time to catch their friends twice. Both times Flit had tried to talk to Scraps, but whenever she attempted this Swipe would talk over her and glare at her. She and Scraps had apparently been spending the better part of their days together, with her retraining him intensively. It seemed to Flit that Swipe’s extra time with Scraps gave her a sense of ownership over him. She acted as they were a couple rather than training partners. It made Flit’s blood boil.

It wasn’t until Friday evening that Flit finally managed to get a word in. She’d asked how Scraps was going, and he responded with; Good, I’ve been-… Then he had been dragged off by Swipe before Flit could talk to him any more.

The only good thing about the week in Supply was that it had given Flit plenty of time to think. She had come to the conclusion that she had made the right decision to save Scraps. If she had waited to get the others before she went to the Nest he would be dead. She also didn’t see what the big deal was about taking him swimming. She had learnt that Swipe had been the one to tell her mother, and that she had greatly exaggerated the state in which they had returned to his cell. Flit had come to think that her mother was worried about her getting too close to someone who was still relatively unknown to them.

The other thing that Flit had realised was that the butterflies she felt whilst in the River were not an isolated thing. The two times that she had seen Scraps at dinner she had been unable to put the strange feeling down in her stomach down to hunger- she had eaten a lot those nights, just to be sure. The other telling sign was her increased lack of tolerance for Swipe. Even thinking of the other woman’s name made Flit want to claw her own eyes out.

Late on Saturday afternoon Flit had been sent down to the cold rooms. The locking system on one of the large refrigerated vaults had gone haywire and required someone from maintenance to come down and have a look at it. While waiting for someone to arrive to fix it, Flit’s father had requested that she begin a stocktake of the different types of food they had in there. With so many people to feed and provide for it was important for them to have accurate stock numbers. So Flit stood, wrapped in a thick thermal coat, counting off all of the stupid heads of lettuce.

“Thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven…”

“Flit?”

The sound of her name and that now-familiar voice made her jump and lose all concentration. Shit, she thought, knowing she’d have to start again. She turned around and her anger melted around. Scraps. She smiled at him and put her tablet on a nearby shelf.

“Hey Scraps!” She said, probably a little too enthusiastically. “Finally managed to ditch Swipe, eh? What brings you down to this hole?”

The last training session with Swipe went by mostly without a hitch. Although he lacked finesse he had developed enough control now not to accidentally destroy anything. Swipe continued her usual physical contact even though he no longer required as much assistance, Acumen had warned him that it was all she could get away with while being observed during training.

Just before end of their sparing session Swipe was accidentally injured, she fell down and hurt her ankle. Acumen went through the medical supplies and bandaged her leg.

"Hey Scraps, can you go down to the store room and get some ice, we need to keep the swelling down." Acumen requested. Scraps nodded and made his way down to the lower levels.

He arrived at the cold storeroom and was shocked to see Flit inside, apparently busy counting stock. He greeted her and she responded with a question.

"Yeah, she got a little hurt during training today. I need to get some ice for her leg." He responded. Flit quickly hid her face of disgust.

"Over there, second shelf on the left, oh don't let...." she tried to warn him about something as he followed her directions. The door behind him slammed shut after he let it go and the room went pitch black.

Scraps could hear Flit shuffling around in the dark. He had only been in the store room once before and did not feel confident moving around.

"Sorry, I didn't know, is there an emergency torch or something we can use?" he asked apologetically. He knew that if he could see the door he might be able to force it open however without having a set direction he could very well demolish part of a wall and destabillise the structural integrity of the room and bury them both in rubble.

"I can try to see if the emergency lights will work but they probably went out with the locking system." She said thoughtfully. "And you'd be best of staying where you are, I'll make my way over to the panel which is by the door- and do my best not to run you over."

Flit could feel the shelf to her left and then closed her eyes, trying to picture from memory where Scraps was standing. Luckily, Flit had very good spatial awareness thanks to her ability, and slowly but surely made her way forward. Just before she reached where she thought Scraps would be she raised her right hand out in front of her and slowed her approach.

"I should be right in front of you now." She said, and the next second she felt soft fabric over hot skin. In the frigidness of the vaults his chest felt as hard as molten lead but as solid as stone.